It was a few days after Jumpo Kinkytail, the little green monkey boy, had been taken ill with the sniffle-snuffles, and now he was all better, for the hot peanuts had made him well. He and his brother Jacko, the red monkey, were hurrying along the road together to get to school before the last bell rang.  
"For we must not be late," said Jumpo.
 
"No, indeed," agreed Jacko. "Shall I carry your books for you, Jumpo? You are not yet strong from having been ill."
 
"Thank you, I'll be glad to have you carry them," said Jumpo politely, so Jacko put his brother's books in the loop of his tail together with his own, and they got to school just as the doors were being closed.
 
"Now the class in number work will recite," said the owl¹ teacher, as she took a piece of blue chalk and went to the blackboard. "If I had two apples, and Jacko Kinkytail gave me three more, how many would I have?" asked the teacher, and she wrote a big figure 2 on the blackboard, and under it a big 3. "You may answer, Jumpo," she said.
 
Jumpo thought for a few seconds.
 
"Well, can't you tell?" asked the owl kindly².
 
"If you please," said Jumpo, after a bit, "it can't be apples that Jacko would give you, because it's pears that Jacko has in his pocket. Three pears—I saw Mamma give them to him for recess³. I can't add pears and apples together."
 
Well, the whole class laughed at that, and the teacher said:
 
"I was only making believe, Jumpo, just as when Uncle Wiggily Longears pretends as he tells you a story. However, we will say two pears and three pears, if that will suit you better. You may come to the board and add up this sum for me."
 
So Jumpo went to the board, and he took the piece of blue chalk in his left paw. And then he couldn't seem to help doing a funny trick. When the teacher wasn't looking he reached over, and with his tail he took an eraser and erased⁴ the numbers from another part of the board where Jennie Chipmunk⁵ was doing a sum in arithmetic, so Jennie didn't have any numbers to add up, and she cried out:
 
"Oh, dear!"
 
"What's the matter?" asked the teacher quickly, and then, turning around, she saw the mischief⁶ Jumpo had done.
 
"You may go to your seat," she said to the green monkey, sad like, "and you must stay in after school. Sammie Littletail, you may finish the sum on which Jumpo started. He is too playful today."
 
At first Jumpo thought it was fun to have rubbed out Jennie Chipmunk's numbers with his tail, and then he felt sorry. He was more sorry as his brother and all the other pupils went out when school was done, and he had to stay in the room. He could hear the boys having a ball game, and the girls were playing tag, and Jumpo wished he hadn't been bad. But that's the way it is sometimes in this world.
 
After a bit the teacher said:
 
"You may go now, Jumpo. Tomorrow please try a little harder to be good. I know you can if you will."
 
"Yes'm," was all Jumpo said.
 
It was quite late when he got out, and all the boys and girls had gone home. Jumpo thought he might as well go home, too, but as it wasgetting dark he didn't go through the woods. Instead he went around by way of Grandfather Goosey Gander's home.
 
Now, not far from where the old gentleman gander lived there was a bad fox ............